Skip to main content
2023-12-27 | Meltem Bayraktar; Baret Binatlı; Tuğçe Üzümoğlu
Zero Carbon Building Accelerator Project

The Türkiye Building Sector Decarbonization Roadmap was meticulously developed through a transparent, participatory process within the framework of the Zero Carbon Building Accelerator (ZCBA) project, which was implemented in Colombia and Türkiye between 2021-2023. The roadmap aims to guide the building and construction industry by offering comprehensive, pioneering, and sustainable solutions to achieve the goal of combating climate change. The roadmap has been structured to reflect Türkiye’s carbon emission reduction targets and has the goal of reducing emissions throughout the entire lifecycle of buildings. It aims to transform the building industry by increasing energy efficiency, transitioning to renewable energy sources, and promoting environmentally friendly building materials and construction methods. Additionally, it includes strategies to increase the climate resilience of the building sector.

The Extended Summary provides an overview of significant information in the Roadmap.

2023-07-31 | Metabolic
Metabolic

How does the large-scale application of biobased construction materials impact our forests? Are we not shifting the burden to another planetary boundary if we focus on the reduction of carbon emissions?

This report from Metabolic is a first step in a longer-term exploration to create clarity on these important issues.

This report delves into the current environmental impact of the construction sector in the EU27+UK; the potential scenarios to reduce the impact of the sector by applying timber alternatives to carbon-intensive materials; the implications that this increased demand for timber has on European forests, and what systemic barriers need to be taken into consideration during the planning and development processes.

Please read the full report here.

 
| Bauhaus Earth; Toni Piëch Foundation
Bauhaus Earth

 

Bauhaus Earth is collaborating with the Toni Piëch Foundation to develop the multi-series knowledge collection 'Building for the Future'. Developed as a modular system, the collection will provide visually appealing and easily digestible information to introduce people to the idea of a regenerative built environment. It will provide an overview of key developments, concepts, and options for action. The first series, 'Setting the Frame', highlights critical facts and figures about the built environment as a major contributor to the climate crisis. It also highlights the vision of a regenerative built environment and presents practical ideas and approaches. The second series will focus specifically on the scale of regenerative buildings, highlighting the use of bio-based materials and how to extend the life cycle of building materials and components, as well as the importance of sufficiency strategies.

The first Series "Setting the Frame" highlights critical facts and figures about the built environment as a major contributor to the climate crisis. It also highlights the vision of a regenerative built environment and presents practical ideas and approaches. The second series “Regenerative Buildings” will focus specifically on the scale of regenerative buildings, emphasizing the use of bio-based materials and how to extend the life cycle of building materials and components.

 
2023-09-12
WBCSD

WBCSD’s Roadmap to Nature Positive: Foundations for the built environment system is a step-by-step guidance with supporting material developed through extensive engagement with 8 companies, and Arcadis as lead consultant. 

This guidance identifies five subsystems to describe the different characteristics of the built environment system: buildings, urban infrastructure, transport infrastructure, marine and coastal infrastructure, and a crosscutting subsystem covering upstream mining and extraction activities. 

Download the roadmap

2023-08-10 | Concrete New Zealand (ConcreteNZ) 
Concrete New Zealand (ConcreteNZ) 

Concrete New Zealand (ConcreteNZ) published A Net-Zero Carbon Concrete Industry for Aotearoa New Zealand: Roadmap to 2050 .

The roadmap outlines the New Zealand cement and concrete industry’s commitment to achieve net-zero concrete production by 2050. The roadmap sets targets for a 44% reduction in direct and electricity-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, aligning with global standards.

The roadmap also showcases the industry’s efforts and innovations to reduce emissions and enhance the sustainability of concrete, and it aims to support the New Zealand government’s climate change goals and contribute to the global net zero movement.

Read the full roadmap here.

2023-07-26 | WorldGBC
WorldGBC

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) published the fifth edition of its annual Advancing Net Zero (ANZ) Status Report.

The report showcases breakthrough action from across the GBC network, including the 35 GBCs participating in WorldGBC’s global Advancing Net Zero programme, 175 signatories to the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment (the Commitment), the wider GBCs network, partners and more. In addition, the report also highlights collaborative efforts from the market that support WorldGBC’s mission to achieve 100% net zero carbon buildings by 2050.

Read the full report here

 

2023-07-02 | Maggie Huang, Phil Keuhn, Sheldon Mendonca, Lindsay Rasmussen, Connor Usry
RMI

The focus of this report is to evaluate the strategic use of renewables, energy storage, building load flexibility, and grid coordination. These focus areas are foundational to achieving smart, connected, and high-performing buildings, and in supporting advances in grid-interactive efficient building (GEB) technologies and their adoption in the US residential building stock. This research analyzes the potential value of GEB strategies on a subset of WinnCompanies’ multifamily housing portfolio and develops an investment plan of energy projects. Through an extensive assessment of the portfolio, the study recommends packages of measures for optimized portfolio-wide investments and provides investment pathways to support decarbonization. 

Read on here

2023-07-04
FIEC

Each year, FIEC publishes its Statistical Report, which gives an insight into construction activity and demonstrates its significance for the economy as a whole.

The report analyses 22 countries individually, as well as the European Union as a whole on the basis of the following elements:

  • General overview (general economic situation, general economic policy, public policies in relation to the construction industry);
  • Investment in total construction, new housebuilding, renovation and maintenance of residential buildings, non-residential building and civil-engineering;
  • Employment in construction and its share in overall EU employment;
  • Building permits.

For the first time, the report also provides an overview of the evolution of prices for certain construction products. The texts and data contained within the report are drawn up on the basis of the national reports provided by the FIEC Member Federations.

Find the report here

 

2022-12-31
CUES Foundation

CAPSA is a digital building passport data platform, developed by CUES Foundation (one of the co-chairs of the GlobalABC Work Area 5: Building measurement, data and information) and in partnership including with the Horizon Europe framework as well as with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC). 

A Building Passport (sometimes referred to as a Digital Building Logbook or (Electronic) Building File) is a whole life cycle repository of building information. It covers a building’s administrative documentation as well as data regarding its plot and location, its technical and functional characteristics, and its environmental, social and financial performance. In its fully digital realization, the Building Passport acts as a single point of input, access and visualization of all the information associated with a building. It is a living document, containing a mix of traceable static “as built” and continuous dynamic record‑keeping of performance data and information. Learn more from our report The Building Passport: A Tool for Capturing and Managing Whole Life Data and Information in Construction and Real Estate.

The CAPSA Digital Building Passport prototyping platform was developed to flank the strategic activities of the GlobalABC around the topic with a way to feasibility test ideas and methodologies. CAPSA consists of a smartphone app for data collection as well as a corresponding cloud-based data base. The smartphone app aims to enable non-expert users to generate robust and comparable data. Data collection focussed on hard and visible information, entered one info at a time. Besides direct data entry, photos are taken for context and image recognition purposes.

Download the CAPSA pamphlet to learn more. 

2023-05-17
Saint-Gobain

 “Constructing a Sustainable Future” is the new Saint-Gobain magazine dedicated to sustainable construction.

The construction sector is indeed at the crossroads of the major contemporary issues that humanity and the planet are facing: the climate crisis, energy emergency, rapid urbanization and the social challenge of decent housing, as well as the necessary protection of natural resources. In this context, we have both solutions and a capacity for action that can turn the tide, at a time when decision-makers around the world are making a commitment to build a more sustainable world.

The purpose of this publication is to share and illustrate our mobilization to meet this ambition. An expanded digital version will be available on constructing-sustainable-future.com at the beginning of June. The digital magazine is designed to be a link between the various representatives of the building and construction industry, as well as a platform for exchange and dialogue to share the greatest achievements, best practices and innovations that will help to accelerate our sector's transition. Like this first edition, the digital magazine will address and give a voice to all who wish to engage in this end: architects, urban planners, promoters, builders, craftsmen, manufacturers, distributors, political leaders, and students.